The Republican journal., 1887-12-08

showing is really unnrecndcntcd from tho
fact that the large increase in TONNAGE
since that time has made tho oc,,,ol ,rofts
far greater than over before The loko
trade l.; n noculi,r ono aud pncoc
sarlly much more f,1ctuotinr thon rail
or ocean business. With the neriod of dim
trade that began in 1881. which was broupht
about hy stacnation in the iron trade aidel
by light foreign demand for Grain. the lake
fleet added very few vessels 70 It's LIST. h,,t
about the middle of Juno last vror thcrn
sprang I'D u sudden and somewhat uney
pected demand for ore carriers: new mines
rapidly dcvelopetl at Ashland and Two Har-
bors at the farther end of Lake Sl1perjor
thus necesstatinr long trims. and since that
time there has been steady demand for ore
vessels This is now more pronouncct] than
that for wheat, coal or lumber carriers
though it is usually expected to drop Off
some weeks before tho coal or whcat trodo
especially as the ore USUALLY freezes solid in
the pockets before the lakes frcozc over
The lake trade is conDarativ,ly in it's in
fancy vet it has assumed of late wears some
thing like giant PROPORTIONS As lately y;
1870 the tonnage passing through the Sault
canal to and from Lake S11perior was iusie,
nificant, reaching but 10000 tons in 1869.
while in 1856 it had grown to more than nine
times that amount, actually exccc.linr the
famous Suez canal in TONNAGE or freight
transmitted. The Lake Srpcrior rcoion was
too much of a wilderness for the heavy do
mand for grain in 1S6O-,O to reach it. but
Lake Michigan profitcd by the water route
to Buffalo and via tho Eric canal to Ear;
York as far as the development of the vest
ern wheat and corn rerion at that time mao,
it possible. The vessels of thos, lar, were
the canal schooncrs. as they ar, now slip.l.
mgly called, from their ability to navigate tn.
old Welland canal into Lake Ontario. and it
took a lake full of thom to do any amount of
business The change from thos,, days to the
present can perhaps be no better shown than
by reference to the fact that wheat freight.
were twenty-five centsa bushel from Chicago
to Buffalo in war times, and a citizen of Buff
falo remembers seeing Just off the city sixty.
three schooncrs in single morning. They
carried from 5000 to / 900 bushels each. and
when one season a schooner arrived with TO-
900 bushels of oats, a Buffalo editor filled n
column of his paper trying to show that car
goes of such prodicious size could never he
made to pay.
Today the canal schooner of even 20W0 or
3O,00O bushcl capacity is voted of no account
and more than one vessel has reached Buffalo
this season with cargocs of 100000 bushels.
In ISIS, five years after Perry's fleet of sail
boats had ''hurlcd' the British, with ano- her
fleet of s;!ilboats off Lake Erie, the fleet of
the great lakes hving the American flag
numbered fifty craft, vet the combined ton
mage of them all has more than once been ex
cee.led this wear by I; single craft built mt
Buffalo, Cleveland or in the shipvalds Of De
troit river or Saginaw bav.
The evolution of the lake vessel of today
has been steady aud regular. 1t was at first
a single nastcd sail craft of less than 100
tons, capable of navigating creeks and enter
ing every apology of a harbc. on the lakes
1t was small enough, too, to be pole,l or
dragged by oxen up the nlcts in the absence
of anything answering more directly to the
present steam tug. The next step was the
larger square rugged craft, which was; not